


Like A Comet Pulled From Orbit

by berryblonde



Series: DBH Rarepair Week [3]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Pre-Relationship, Present Tense, mentions of gun shot wounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 11:23:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17600408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/berryblonde/pseuds/berryblonde
Summary: “Maybe,” Gavin continues quietly for the other. “Maybe you need to recognize the importance of stars.”Written for DBH Rarepair Week Day 3, prompt: Stars/Protect.





	Like A Comet Pulled From Orbit

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am with Day 3 of Rarepair week. i've been wanting to try writing in present tense for a while now, so here it is. Hope you enjoy, and if anyone knows where the title is from i'll love them forever.

There’s something beautiful and tragic in the way the stars glimmer far above, burning bright or maybe not burning at all anymore, burned out for years upon years before their light even reaches the lonely viewer’s eye.

Steps on the slightly damp grass force him to barely open his eyes, almost inaudible but getting louder each second, heavy and without a doubt, Gavin knows who they belong to before they stop next to him and the owner wordlessly drops down next to his own lying form, sitting in silence with him for a few seconds, then a few minutes.

It’s a comfortable silence, in a way, there’s nothing Gavin wants to desperately say or do to fill it, even if he wishes the person— because yes, Connor is a person, he recognizes begrudgingly now— would get up and go their way again, leave him to his thoughts and contemplations.

The leather jacket he is resting his head on is splattered with grotesquely beautiful patterns of red and blue, the former barely visible against the brown of his favorite article of clothing, the blue a stark contrast. He knows it will fade within a few hours.

Next to him, Connor’s jacket, the shoulder in particular, has the same odd discoloration of blue, around a patch of missing fabric, splattered and soaked in the blue blood.

_Connor’s blood_. The thought leaves a sour taste in his mouth, similar to the first time he has been forced to acknowledge Connor’s existence as something other than a machine, a glorified computer whose only purpose is to make Gavin’s life harder than it already is.

It’s not a pleasant memory, and Gavin closes his eyes again, forces them shut. Next to him, Connor shuffles, the smallest of noises coming from the rustle of fabric, but it’s loud to Gavin’s ears.

Then, Connor seems to decide to fill the silence that has been stretching between them for minutes (or has it been hours? Mere seconds? Gavin can’t tell.).

“I don’t believe I have ever seen the stars like this,” he remarks, head tilted upwards, not looking at Gavin as the other watches him from the corner of his eyes.

Despite the innocence of the statement, it doesn’t fail to make Gavin’s blood boil. Connor never does.

“And?” He shoots back, and he would have been rolling his eyes had they been properly open. “Do I look like I fucking care?”

Connor tilts his head, turning so he can settle his gaze on the Detective lying in the grass.

“I believe you do care about what I have to say, _Gavin_.” And the way he enunciates his name, the way it rolls off the android’s tongue makes Gavin’s heart skip a beat and then pick up pace, and all he can do is curse himself and Connor in his thoughts, biting his lip.

“My scanners show an elevated heart beat and a slight increase in temperature, whether they be from anger or something else is entirely irrelevant.” His voice is like smooth silk in Gavin’s ears, and he hates it.

“What the fuck do you want, toaster?” He opts to retort to insulting nicknames instead, ignoring what the other has said.

Connor stays silent for a moment, and Gavin catches a glimpse of his LED — the LED the android still refuses to get rid of, though Gavin can’t tell why— turning yellow, spinning like its own little star against the dark night sky.

When he speaks, he does so quietly, eyes averted.

“I simply wanted to talk to you to make sure you were well.”

And Gavin can’t help but let out a small, humorless laugh before he coughs, ignoring Connor’s concerned glance, mentally blaming it on the pack of cigarettes he smokes per day and not his embarrassment and surprise over the android _caring_.

So he barks back.

“What’s it to you?”

The hostile reaction doesn’t seem to faze Connor. Gavin curses him again in his head. Connor shouldn’t be the one asking the question.

“You almost got shot, Detective—” Oh how he hates Connor reverting to using his formal title— “I simply wanted to assure your well-being was not compromised. I know a situation like that can majorly impact the human psyche, so I— I wondered whether you were alright after you went away.”

“Yeah, and? Been almost shot or actually shot dozens of times, I don’t fucking care.” A lie, he does. “You got _actually_ shot, tin can, maybe you should worry about that a bit more.”

Connor subtly shakes his head, the hint of a smile gracing his features.

“Thank you for your concern, Detective, but there’s no need for it. The bullet didn’t hit any major biocomponents and the hole it pierced through my chassis was easily repaired by the technicians on site.”

“I’m not fucking concerned, dipshit.” Another lie, he is.

“I know,” Connor simply smiles in return, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes, a wistful sadness taking hold of them. Gavin sits up, puts on his jacket.

“Look, I’m—”

He is crudely interrupted by that voice he loves so much.

“Detective, up there!” The android exclaims, a child-like wonder on his face as he points up into the night-sky and for a second, Gavin catches a glimpse of a shooting star. Fleeting it may be, just as life itself, but it is there. For a second, before it disappears again into the vast darkness of the night.

And he makes a wish. Keeps quiet about it. Maybe Connor makes one too, he doesn’t know. But it’s not his place to ask.

“I heard it’s a human tradition to make a wish upon seeing a shooting star,” Connor comments, just as if he had been able to read Gavin’s mind, and Gavin is torn between cursing him for it and smiling, because in an odd way, he likes it.

“It is,” he replies mildly, deciding not to use any of his wide array of rude names he usually has for Connor.

“They’re a fickle thing, aren’t they?” Connor keeps talking, and Gavin doesn’t know whether he is grateful or not.

“They glow bright for a second, and then they disappear and burn out. Yet, despite their short lifespan they seem to be valued and loved even more than the constant glow of the stars.”

Gavin has a feeling that the other isn’t simply talking about the stars anymore, and his chest tightens a bit.

“But even the steadiest of stars has to die one day,” Gavin quietly adds to Connor’s thoughts, finally looking at the other properly. Taking in the other’s sitting form, the usually crisp, now ruffled and bloodied suit jacket he wears, now without the tell-tale signs of a glowing blue triangle and armband marking him as an android— as not-human.

“Would you let a star glow out to save a comet?” And Gavin knows he has to choose his words with care, mouth dry and hands starting to become clammy.

“No,” he finally replies, swallowing hard. He’s not sure if what he’ll say will be the right thing, but he can see the fear in Connor’s eyes, the uncertainty, and he feels guilty. For being part of the reason Connor feels this way, for being the one the android went to for comfort tonight.

“They both have value… they’re— they’re not the same,” he says quietly, gray eyes looking with warm, brown ones, a cold shiver running down his back.

“And they never will be. But that doesn’t mean that one is inherently better or worse.” And he feels years of hate falter with just one sentence, crumbling inside of him as doe eyes regard him with such happiness and surprise, heart beating heavily in his chest, pounding against his ribcage.

“Why did you take that bullet for me?” It’s the elephant in the room, one that has to be addressed, Gavin feels. But once the words are spoken, he’s not so sure whether he wants the answer anymore.

Connor seems to be taken aback by his rather blunt question, and Gavin can’t blame him. Had their roles been reversed, he would have looked the same, and that only serves to reinforce how human Connor seemed these days, LED or no LED.

He can see Connor breathing in deeply, and he does wonder why. The android doesn’t need to, after all.

“I— My body can withstand more than a human body,” Connor explains calmly but Gavin knows it’s not the whole truth. He doesn’t pressure, lets Connor talk.

“It was— merely a calculation. I was much more likely to walk away from a bullet unscarred and easily patched up than you, Detective.”

Connor hesitates, quiets down again, looks up at the sky, away from Gavin. Gavin immediately misses the android’s gaze on him.

“Maybe—”

His voice dies down.

“Maybe,” Gavin continues quietly for the other. “Maybe you need to recognize the importance of stars.” It’s a whisper, barely audible, but Connor seems to hear it. And he looks at Gavin, contemplating once more before a small smile settles upon his face. It doesn’t look entirely real, has a questioning and mechanic edge to it.

“Have you?”

Gavin swallows. Does he want to admit it out loud? Maybe he does. Needs to. But he’s not there yet, not where he needs to be. So instead, he wraps his jacket tighter around himself.

“I’m trying,” he responds.

Connor nods.

“I’m glad.”

The smile on his lips turns genuine, bright like any star in the night-sky and silently, Gavin agrees. He’s glad he’s trying too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, and don't forget to leave me your thoughts! <3 Or feel free to drop by and talk to me on tumblr [@unacceptable-bisexual](https://unacceptable-bisexual.tumblr.com)! I'm always happy to hear from you guys <3


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